Proverbs 5 explained: Sweet Words, Bitter Ending

Honey that turns bitter (vv. 1-6)

Her flattering talk is pictured as honey and smooth oil, but in the end it is as bitter as a poisonous herb and as cutting as a sword, and it leads down to the grave. Verse 6 is hard to translate, but the sense seems to be that her life drifts with no steady direction, and she does not notice.

Do not even go near (vv. 7-14)

The advice is to keep well away, not even passing her door, because an affair can cost a man his good name, his best years and his earnings, which end up in other people's hands. In ancient Israel adultery could bring public disgrace and severe punishment before the whole community, which is why the man looks back with bitter regret.

Drink from your own well (vv. 15-20)

In a dry land a private cistern or well was precious, and here it stands for a man's own wife. The springs spilling into the streets picture love scattered carelessly, and interpreters are unsure whether this also means children fathered outside the marriage, but the passage clearly ends with a frank, warm celebration of married love.

Caught by one's own choices (vv. 21-23)

The LORD sees every path a person takes, and wrongdoing becomes its own trap, like ropes that tie a person up. In Hebrew, the verb behind going astray in verse 23 is the same one used for being swept away by love in verses 19 and 20, so the man who could have been dizzy with his wife's love ends up staggering in his own folly.

Key verse: Proverbs 5:18

Where Christians differ

Most readers take the warning plainly as being about adultery, but some Christians through history have also read the seductive woman as a picture of idolatry or false teaching.

Something to think about

When something looks sweet up close but carries a cost further down the road, what helps you see the later part clearly?